Ecclestone said last week that the Silverstone race, listed provisionally on the 2005 F1 calendar, would be axed after a breakdown in negotiations with the circuit's owners, the British Racing Drivers' Club.

Luis Silveira, whose company Grupo Promotor Inversiones Caribenos is involved in the Cancun deal, said the site was not being viewed as an alternative to Silverstone.

"That is not the intention," he said. "The issue was not even raised of taking the place of existing dates. What was discussed and what came out was a new date, a new commitment, not a substitution."

Ecclestone has said repeatedly that the sport's future lies increasingly in the developing world.

Cancun and Formula One have agreed for the time being to run the race from 2006 to 2010, with an option to renew for another five years.